City Council split expected over replacement for Torrance Mayor Pat Furey

Torrance >> When Ted Lieu won election to the state Assembly in 2005, his colleagues on the fractured Torrance City Council struggled to appoint a replacement.

In fact, the remaining six council members deadlocked on eight successive votes over 2 1/2 hours before late Councilwoman Pat McIntyre switched sides. The political stalemate was not generally viewed as one of the panel’s finest hours.

“I have to tell you how bad you look out there to the viewing public,” respected former Mayor Dee Hardison said publicly of the jockeying for position and power.

Now, there are signs the city may be going down the same path.

Once sworn in Tuesday, the newly reconstituted City Council must decide how to deal with the unexpired council term of incoming Mayor Pat Furey.

City Attorney John Fellows said state open government laws prohibit a final decision Tuesday night, as some in the community believed might happen.

“The way I read the (staff report) as saying is they can’t do any action other than to provide direction as to the course they want to follow,” he said, “so they cannot make an appointment Tuesday night.”

The council seat must be filled by Aug. 14 or it will automatically go to a special election. That could be conducted either by mail or a regular precinct vote.

But the deadline has passed to hold an election in November and the rough cost estimate for a special election is about $200,000. A cash outlay like that generally doesn’t sit well with residents in fiscally conservative Torrance.

Behind the scenes, battle lines have already been drawn and appear to indicate that unless someone blinks again, a special election may well occur by default.

“There’s a very good chance there will be a deadlock vote,” predicted outgoing Mayor Frank Scotto. “I think this time they will probably keep it that way and go to a special election.”

Incoming council members are holding their cards close to their chests, refraining from commenting publicly on how they see things playing out.

But political insiders see Furey, Kurt Weideman and newcomer Tim Goodrich aligned with one another, while Councilman Gene Barnett is on the other side with former school board member Heidi Ashcraft and Geoff Rizzo, former Planning Commission chairman.

“There’s no question that Pat wants his person on the panel,” said former Councilman Rod Guyton. “He’s looking for a (council) majority. ... He’s looking to solidify what he wants to do up there.”

It’s an open secret in the community that former planning commissioner and commercial real estate broker Ray Uchima is Furey’s preferred candidate.

But Uchima pulled out of running in the election and instead raised money for Furey’s campaign. The thought that he could essentially be rewarded for that with an appointment comes perilously close to political cronyism for some observers.

“Talk about nontransparency,” said Leilani Kimmel-Dagostino, who finished fifth in the race. “You would think they would listen to the voice of the people and the people have already voted.

“If they were to bring in somebody who hadn’t at least run in the election,” she added, “that would warrant some scrutiny, I would think.”

As the candidate who finished just outside the top four vote-getters who automatically won council seats, Kimmel-Dagostino could have an argument that she is the logical choice for an appointment. She would be only the second woman on the panel and, like Uchima, is Asian, an important and growing constituency in the city.

But the member of the Commission on Aging lacks a strong political power base. Kimmel-Dagostino said that after meeting with Furey and Weideman, she “couldn’t get a straight answer” from either about whether they might at least consider appointing her.

Milton Herring, a military veteran who would become Torrance’s first black council member if appointed, may well have a similar argument if diversity is a consideration. And Mike Griffiths, a planning commissioner who was endorsed by Scotto, is another contender.

“The new council has a great opportunity to show the people of Torrance that they can do the job they were elected to do, to make good decisions and spend taxpayer money wisely,” Griffiths said. “If they’re going to do any appointment, I think they should give highest consideration to those who ran in the election because they have expended a huge amount of energy, commitment and money to demonstrate to the people of Torrance their desire to be a member of the City Council.

“To choose someone who didn’t go through that process,” he added, “will open the potential of having a council take nontransparent decisions.”

Other names being tossed around in the community who could throw their hat in the ring are former Councilwoman Maureen O’Donnell, seen as a political ally of Furey, and retiring City Clerk Sue Herbers, who steps down from that post Tuesday.

“I’m contemplating (applying),” Herbers confirmed.

Any appointment process could conceivably be dragged out over three other council meetings, with the last of those set for Aug. 12, just two days before the deadline that would trigger a special election.

Some suspect that would allow the council to deflect blame over the election cost, while going to the polls could favor Uchima because, as Kimmel-Dagostino put it, “everyone is tapped out monetarily.”

There is no guarantee any candidate seen as closely allied with Furey, who courted the backing of deep-pocketed public employee unions during the race, would win a special election in GOP-leaning Torrance.

Just ask Guyton.

He was appointed to the panel in October 2005 when McIntyre changed her vote. But he didn’t have long to savor the victory.

Voters tossed him out of office the following June in a house cleaning of Scotto predecessor Dan Walker and his council allies.

“Getting appointed under the wrong conditions can label you as being somebody’s guy,” said Guyton, who has nevertheless been urged to seek the appointment again this time around as well.

“I know for a fact a lot of people didn’t want to support me because they thought I was Walker’s guy.”